26 February 2021
TreeBuilders’ TreeParker system was chosen to provide extra growth capacity for the existing trees surrounding the Eiffel Tower. The two avenues alongside the tower were designed by Vogt Landscape Architects together with TreeBuilders, to give the existing trees a better growth opportunity.
The left “allee” covers the project’s first stage. At the beginning and end of these avenues TreeParker will provide the existing trees with more room to grow after years of stunted growth.
Meaning
Vogt Landscape Architects have been selected to redesign the Eiffel Tower public gardens as part of the security upgrade project. The gardens existed years before the Eiffel Tower was built. Over time, they changed in layout and composition, so much so that they began to lose their legibility and significance and were gradually forgotten.
Gravel
The trees also suffered greatly under the ever-increasing numbers of visitors and Parisians alike. They became stunted because of a continuously increasing layer of gravel that was added to each year. As a result, the subsoil became so compact that it stunted the trees’ growth. The need to fence off the site and shift its points of access for security reasons became an opportunity to improve the growth site of these trees as well.
Below ground
The Treeparker system provides high amounts of uncompacted soil volume and maximizes the usable space below ground. At the entrances and exits we provided the trees with a growth volume of 150 m3. To guide the tree roots underground we used Root Directing Panels. In this way trees can start growing again being given the environment to continue growing for a long time; a TreeParker unit topped with an aggregate base course layer of 40 cm and a 15 cm layer of concrete. The trees become part of the new concrete path which will be poured along the entire length on both sides of the monument.
Funding
Work started in January on the left side of the Eiffel Tower. The project will continue in March. The project is financed by the board of the Eiffel Tower.
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